According to the law, hyenas must not be eaten because they are dirty. Hyenas can change their sex; sometimes they are male, other times female. They live near tombs and eat the dead bodies they find there. There is a stone in the hyena's eye (some say in the stomach of its young) that will give a person the ability to predict the future if the stone is placed under the person's tongue. Hyenas will circle a house at night, calling out words with the voice of a man; anyone who is deceived and goes out to investigate is eaten. A dog that crosses a hyena's shadow will lose its voice. The hyena's spine is rigid, so to turn it must move its entire body. The result of a mating between a hyena and a lioness is the beast called leucrota.

The hyena represents untrustworthy, two-faced people. Or it represents humanity, who first worshiped God and then worshiped idols. It can also signify a greedy and lustful man.

Illustrations of the hyena vary wildly. Most show a dog-like animal eating a human corpse, but some are depicted as other animals. In Bibliothèque Nationale de France, lat. 14429 (folio 111r) the hyena is drawn as a bull, ox or buffalo. There are also hyena illustrations where the hyena looks like a horse (Bibliothèque Nationale de France, fr. 22532, folio 303v; British Library, Additional MS 11390, folio 27v), a camel (British Library, Additional MS 28260, folio 90r), and a griffin (Corpus Christi College Parker Library, MS 22, folio 162v).

The hyena has a stone in its eyes, called hyenia; anyone who keeps it under his tongue is believed to foretell the future. The gall of the hyena is useful in medicine, particularly in the treatment of dim eyes. The heart of the hyena is used in witchcraft.

Albertus Magnus describes several uses for parts of the hyena: The sores of leprosy are helped by anointing them with hyena’s blood; the tooth of a hyena attached to the right arm prevents forgetfulness; a man who ties a pouch holding the bile of a male hyena to his left thigh will success with women; a hyena’s right forepaw worn as an amulet will cause the wearer to be well received by all; the pulverized marrow from a hyena’s left foot thrust beneath a wife's nose so she inhales it cause her to love him more than any other man.